Karen Leighly
| Title: | Associate Professor |
| Education: | B.S. New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 1983 |
| Ph.D. Montana State University, 1991 | |
| Office: | 243 Nielsen Hall |
| Phone: | 405-325-3961, ext. 36243 |
| Email: | |
| Research Home Page |
Active Galactic Nuclei, (AGN), recognized by their intense emission that vastly outshines the light of the stars in their host galaxy, are the most luminous persistently emitting object in the universe. My research has focused on a fundamental problem: I seek to understand the origin of their intense emission.
AGN are nearly universally believed to be powered by mass accretion onto a supermassive black hole. AGN emit nearly the same power per logarithmic energy band from infrared to X-rays, and observations at all wavelengths are valuable. My research has primarily focused on X-ray observations since both theoretical and observational evidence indicates that most of the X-rays are emitted very close to the black hole event horizon and therefore the X-rays tell us the most about the central engine of the AGN.
